Prowling around the hunting grounds of Southend

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The make up of Southend Council – UKIP’s next victory?

So it looks like the next makeup of the council will be Independent/lab/lib which is not necessarily a bad make up. I fear that this will create a lot of unease especially considering the unease between Lab and Lib Dems in southend and Lib Dems and Independents. The Lib Dems abstained last year on a couple of crucial votes which then meant it was easier for the Conservatives. Whilst the Indies and Labour have been comfortable working together and so should be able to do so again it will be interesting to see how a coalition with the Lib Dems will succeed. However the biggest winners out of this mix up will be UKIP.

All three main parties have ruled out working with UKIP for at least a year and this will be their greatest triumph. The Independent/lab/lib coalition will raise council taxes and still have to impose heavy cuts as the hardest rounds of cuts will have to come into force this year. The electorate will hate this. The independents in particular have been voted in on promises of saving the library etc etc. This will be financially unfeasible. They will of course blame the previous Conservative administration and Conservative government and amongst their own voters this will keep their support. However, sitting on the edge UKIP will turn round and say `well they wouldnt work with us` (no doubt a small part of their voters was down to the harrassment they recieved from the MSM) and get a little of the sympathy vote. But more importantly they will be able to say, `well we weren’t the ones who introduced x y and z and who raised council tax. Lab/Lib/Independents (i am assuming after their success that they will no longer see the need for the electoral pact which always struck me as one sided against UKIP anyway) will be tainted and the Conservatives are a dying force anyway. UKIP will gain more and more councillors as a result.

Let me be very clear, I find UKIP abhorrent, unfortunately I suspect they will benefit from what is happening.